Electronics devices such as cellular telephones, pagers, portable email and Internet appliances, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and the like are becoming smaller and multifunctional. For example, a cellular telephone may incorporate an electronic organizer, or a personal digital assistant may include an integrated camera and provide wireless email, Internet access, or even cellular telephone functionality.
To facilitate the multifunctional aspects of these devices, designers have adopted numerous different form factors. For example, the cellular telephone body may open clamshell-style to reveal an enlarged keypad and screen to facilitate use of the device as an electronic organizer. Alternatively, the cellular telephone may include an enlarged screen that may be rotated outwardly from the body of the telephone to facility viewing of Internet content.
Antennas for wireless electronic devices have traditionally been designed to extend outwardly from a portion of the device housing. Antennas have also been constructed internal of the device housing and integral with portions of the device housing. When integrated into a movable portion of the device housing, it is necessary to ensure the antenna will operate well in each of the disparate operating positions of the device. A difficulty in the antenna design arises when the device is operated in a configuration for which the antenna has not been tuned. This is because the impedance matching of the antenna is highly dependent upon the position of the antenna relative to the user and other electronics contained within the electronic device. If the antenna is not tuned to operate in that position, it may perform poorly. Thus, there is a need for an antenna that functions efficiently in an electronic device having numerous disparate operating positions.